{"id":586774,"date":"2026-08-08T07:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586774\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:30:08","slug":"coolmore-stud-owner-john-magnier-says-billionaire-maurice-regan-trying-to-destroy-him-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586774\/","title":{"rendered":"Coolmore Stud owner John Magnier says billionaire Maurice Regan trying to \u2018destroy\u2019 him \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coolmore Stud owner John Magnier<\/a> has accused billionaire Maurice Regan of waging a campaign to try and \u201cdestroy\u201d him. <\/p>\n

A letter sent by Magnier\u2019s solicitors Arthur Cox to Regan, seen by The Irish Times, details text messages between the two men after last year\u2019s High Court case over the Barne Estate. <\/p>\n

Magnier believed he had a deal in place to buy the 751-acre estate in Co Tipperary, but Judge Max Barrett concluded a sale had not taken place. It was ultimately bought by Regan. <\/p>\n

The letter said Coolmore\u2019s prohibition on doing business with Regan\u2019s Newtown Anner Stud was justified due to threats to destroy Magnier\u2019s reputation and business.<\/p>\n

Magnier is being sued by Regan\u2019s stud in the High Court for damages for alleged breaches of competition law after his horses were barred from Coolmore\u2019s stud services. <\/p>\n

Regan\u2019s complaint alleges that Magnier\u2019s Ballydoyle racing group was given preferential treatment at the start of races in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Regan, who runs the JT Magen construction firm in New York and the Mercantile pub group in Dublin, has also complained that trainer Joseph O\u2019Brien was told not to train Newtown Anner horses. <\/p>\n

In a letter sent on Thursday, Magnier\u2019s solicitors said it was clear that Regan\u2019s \u201canimus\u201d and \u201cpersonal grievance\u201d stemmed from a 1999 public auction where Regan and his father were the \u201cdisappointed underbidders\u201d when Coolmore bought Anne\u2019s Gift, a large farm beside Coolmore in Co Tipperary. <\/p>\n

The letter complained that Regan\u2019s \u201csole focus\u201d in the competition case was to \u201cuse them as a platform for making bald allegations in the media and elsewhere\u201d, culminating recently in a 13,000-word interview in the Sunday Independent\u201d. <\/p>\n

Magnier\u2019s letter said Regan had publicised complaints he made to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) about Ballydoyle starting arrangements. However, it said HRI has since confirmed there was \u201cno basis\u201d for the complaint to it. The IHRB said, \u201cthe matter remains under consideration\u201d.<\/p>\n

The letter from Arthur Cox said the complaints were \u201cpart of a wider campaign against Coolmore to make good on Mr Regan\u2019s threats that he would destroy John Magnier\u201d.<\/p>\n

It outlined how Regan was connected in business dealings with Luke Comer, a billionaire developer who is suspended from horse racing after his horses tested positive for banned substances. The letter said Comer had made \u201cwild allegations\u201d that Coolmore doped his horses.<\/p>\n

Comer has alleged that Coolmore paid his training manager Jim Gorman to contaminate hay in his yard before his horses tested positive for banned substances. Coolmore and Gorman have denied the allegation. <\/p>\n

The claims emerged publicly in a court application by Gorman to obtain a recording that allegedly contained a Coolmore executive talking about paying Gorman as part of a doping plot.<\/p>\n

The letter said the recording was \u201can undated, heavily edited and scripted two-minute audio file, which was evidently created to damage our clients\u201d. <\/p>\n

It added that Coolmore\u2019s decision to bar Regan\u2019s horses had nothing to do with the Barne case. Instead, it said, the business relationship was damaged by \u201cRegan\u2019s desire to cause Mr Magnier personal harm\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said this \u201cencompasses your client\u2019s threats that he would destroy Mr Magnier\u2019s reputation and business …\u201d. <\/p>\n

The letter complained that Regan\u2019s competition case was a \u201cfig-leaf\u201d used to \u201cmalign our clients and to prosecute what our clients consider to be Mr Regan\u2019s one-sided feud under the veil of legal privilege\u201d. <\/p>\n

Legal firm Creed McStay issued a response to Arthur Cox on behalf of Regan that dismissed its complaints as \u201ca work of fiction\u201d. It said the Comer allegations did not concern Regan and were \u201can irrelevance\u201d to his competition case. Regan\u2019s relationship with Comer was \u201ca narrow one\u201d concerning one investment, it added. <\/p>\n

The firm said Regan had intended to continue business with Coolmore after the Barne case but claimed Magnier \u201ccould not let the matter rest\u201d. It denied Regan had nursed a grievance for 27 years, saying he had done business with Coolmore for 20 of those years. Comer was contacted for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coolmore Stud owner John Magnier has accused billionaire Maurice Regan of waging a campaign to try and \u201cdestroy\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,20042,112],"class_list":["post-586774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-magnier","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}